Everything was planned out perfectly. I needed new chicks but I wanted to try to let mama raise them, but didn't have a broody. So I ordered 12 wooden eggs, and placed one per day into the nestbox. At day 10, my dominant hen went broody!!! After 2-3 days, we were sure the broody was going to stick, so we ordered 10 chicks in the mail from a hatchery. Ordinarily, I would have just bought them from my favorite feed store, but they didn't have any meat birds on order, and because of the national shortage, I couldn't rely on a feed store having the exact birds I wanted the day I needed them.
I was able to find what I wanted for the week I needed them, tied to the 21 day incubation schedule. Hooray! Except the week they hatched, we got some storms, and the temps dropped. I figured the $35 small order shipping fee I paid would have included a good heat source so I didn't worry. After tracking the package for 36 hours, I got an auto-text at 5am that the birds had been delivered to my post office, so at 7:45 I stood outside the Post Office and flagged down an employee coming into work. She very graciously brought me my birds, but I discovered when I got home that 7 of them were already dead, and an 8th died within a few minutes. #9 is doing well, and #10 is still touch and go (48 hrs later).
The hatchery refunded the chicks, but not the shipping. I'm not blaming anyone. I can't be mad at the hatchery (except for frustration about the cheap heating source), and the Post office didn't do anything wrong that I know of. I think it was just my small order and the wet/cold that came in, and the fact that the only hatchery that wasn't sold out was half the country away. I called like crazy all over town-probably a dozen feed stores! Fortunately, we found one store that had just gotten in some birds that same day, so we replaced them all (with different breeds). I had ordered 2 layers and 8 Cornish Rock crosses and replaced them with 1 layer breed and 9 gold sex links, hoping they'll be decent meat producers. The next time I have a broody, I'm going back to relying on feed stores. It's worth the extra little price for them to absorb the shipping losses and for me to be able to pick the healthiest chicks for my flock. I lose a little bit of predictability, but I think it's worth it in the long run. Opening that box was not a good moment.
I was able to find what I wanted for the week I needed them, tied to the 21 day incubation schedule. Hooray! Except the week they hatched, we got some storms, and the temps dropped. I figured the $35 small order shipping fee I paid would have included a good heat source so I didn't worry. After tracking the package for 36 hours, I got an auto-text at 5am that the birds had been delivered to my post office, so at 7:45 I stood outside the Post Office and flagged down an employee coming into work. She very graciously brought me my birds, but I discovered when I got home that 7 of them were already dead, and an 8th died within a few minutes. #9 is doing well, and #10 is still touch and go (48 hrs later).
The hatchery refunded the chicks, but not the shipping. I'm not blaming anyone. I can't be mad at the hatchery (except for frustration about the cheap heating source), and the Post office didn't do anything wrong that I know of. I think it was just my small order and the wet/cold that came in, and the fact that the only hatchery that wasn't sold out was half the country away. I called like crazy all over town-probably a dozen feed stores! Fortunately, we found one store that had just gotten in some birds that same day, so we replaced them all (with different breeds). I had ordered 2 layers and 8 Cornish Rock crosses and replaced them with 1 layer breed and 9 gold sex links, hoping they'll be decent meat producers. The next time I have a broody, I'm going back to relying on feed stores. It's worth the extra little price for them to absorb the shipping losses and for me to be able to pick the healthiest chicks for my flock. I lose a little bit of predictability, but I think it's worth it in the long run. Opening that box was not a good moment.
